The Endless Beginning
by Scerro
Summary: Kinda Kingdom Hearts, but more like it was long before the main story, and it explains how I would start things off. Of course, its mostly a original story, thats mixed with other VG themes.
1. Prologue

Many years ago, when the skies were bright with color, every animal was free, with little worry of any predator, disease, and pollution, there was a small town in the deep woods, surrounded by trees. In this small village lived the race of humans. The village in the deep woods consisted of many small brown walled-green roofed huts, where the villagefolk dwelled within their safe houses of the forest. They were rarely bothered by animals, and lived lives of relative happiness. The common age ranged from old to very old, almost every person living to be over a hundred. With so many children being born each year it was amazing that it only contained only 218 people. Each family had their own hut where they lived, father, mother, brothers and sisters. All the modest little living quarters were the same size, built on standard code, founded by the light, before time, before them. That's all they knew, that they must follow the code. They knew it kept them happy, and always would, as long as they obeyed it with all their hearts and souls. Except for the few with exceptional curiosity, which would eventually bring about the shattering, and begin the second reality.

Ryintha-MHF (rye-in-thee-uhh)

Hair: Long, brown hair. Goes halfway down shoulders

Height: 5 ft 9 in

Eyes: Brown

Weapon: Staff

Magic: Healing magic, and some earth defense spells that also use plants

Fighting style: More of a live and let live mindset, but overall, she's pretty defensive.

Body type: A lighter frame. Not very muscular, but very quick, like her brother. She's not quite what one would call a beauty, but she's fairly attractive.

Personality/description:

Ryintha has one of the "happy" personality types, although, she knows when to show it, and when not to. Her twin is Rvatial. They are somewhat argumentative, but rarely get far enough into a fight before someone breaks it up between the two. She has no hard feelings because of this. She's also very intelligent, but rarely shows it. A lot of the times the group makes decisions she doesn't like, but keeps quiet about it, even with her personality.

Karza-MHM (car-zuh)

Hair: Very short, dirty blondish

Height: 5 ft 6 in

Eyes: Blue

Weapon: Double Swords. Sometimes a shield when necessary

Magic: Very little, but more of fire and air spells

Fighting style: When he's alone, a pure all out attack.

Body type: Very muscular, and by standards of the girls, he's hot. A bit short though, they all say.

Personality/description:

Karza, is the smart aleck of the group. Like Ryintha, he knows when to shut up about things. He has almost what I'd call a "group idiot" quality, but he's not quite an idiot. He's about average in intelligence, but just doesn't try. If he has to do something that requires it though, He'll use it. Kirthe's twin

Kirthe-MHF (keer-thea)

Hair: Very long, dirty blondish

Height: 5 ft 8 in

Eyes: Blue/greenish

Weapon: Throwing knives and other projectiles, along with a short sword.

Magic: She uses a good amount of magic, mostly gravity, earth, and air spells

Fighting style: She likes to stay back, and bombard the enemy with her knives and magic. She has her short sword though, once they get smart enough to come in close.

Body type: She's stronger than Ryintha, for sure, but still not at strong as the guys in the group. No muscle definition. She is known to be the beauty of the girls.

Personality/description:

Kirthe is the most laid back of the group. A "thinker" for sure, and she keeps away from being praised, just because she's so shy. She likes to make sure she's strong though. A bit picky with her food though.

Rvatial-MHM (riv-at-te-al)

Hair: Medium short, Brown

Height: 5 ft 10 in

Eyes: Brown

Weapon: Longsword Katana. Kinda a mix of the two. Short bows too though.

Magic: He shares the Elements of his sister. Earth and healing, although he also has some ice, air, and plant spells

Fighting style: He uses a balanced strategy. Normal enemies, like animals, he uses more of an all out strategy, but when his opponent is an intelligent form of life, he goes berserk in strategies and whatnot

Body type: Rvatial is definitely a lither person than most. As with his sister, he's fast. Fastest in the group.

Personality/description:

Rvatial, also sometimes known as Rva, is a very down to earth person. He typically keeps his mouth shut when he is around other people he doesn't know, although that's only when its supposed to be friendly conversation. Otherwise, he'll be fairly loud and outspoken. He's more intelligent than most people.

Narste-MHM (nar-stee)

Hair: Brownish-reddish-blondish.

Height: 5 ft 9 in

Eyes: Green

Weapon: Dagger, sword of regular length. Dark blue shield

Magic: He uses a lot of fire spells. More than anything, but gravity, air, and ice are sometimes in his spells

Fighting style: Narste is very really balanced, and suited very well for commanding.

Body type: His frame is a bit heavier than normal. He is a bit stronger than most people, and a tad bit faster than most too. (A bit of Rvatial and Karza)

Personality/description:

Narste is commonly known as an intelligent person with more common sense than most people. This, makes him very suited for leading a group. He's not afraid to ask people things, and get what must be done, done, even though he is somewhat of a procrastinator.

Rumin-SMOWater-M (room-in)

Yautala-SMOHealing-F (yow-tall-uh)

Trakelilo-SMOPlants-M (tra-ke-li-lo)

Bejiva-SMOIce-F (bay-jee-va)

Mytrethe-SOMEarth-F (may-tre-they)

Wyilern-SMOAir-F (why-le-rn)

Tirfi-SMOFire-M (Tear-fee)

Nawsret-SMOGravity-M (naw-sir-et)

Xretsan- NLED's NB (ze-ret-san)


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- Pre-Exploration

The day was bright, brighter than many others seen in the forest during someone's lifetime living in the deep village. Few had ever seen such a bright day. This being the case, the mothers set their children out to play, with the light showing their exact locations in the universe. So, the children headed out to the most open area in the whole woods. Here they would usually play all day until they either got hungry, thirsty or too exhausted to move. On most days the latter of the three would be the case, because even if they got thirsty, there was a nearby stream they would always go down to drink from. Here was also where the older children would plan, philosophize, talk about the forest life, who they liked, and most importantly of all, where they came from, where they were going, and just the general "Why of life". For they didn't know, never would, nor would anyone within the universe.

So, one day, when one group of the older children, Kirthe, Ryintha, Karza, Rvatial, and Narste came to ponder upon their random subject of the day, right after they had finished all their morning chores. They all sat down around their charred rock, where they had made their own comfortable spots, where they would rest in comfort while their almost daily discussions would take place. Eventually they all knew they would get married off in the village and never have time again for their types of questions, or as much time as they now had within their lives. So, once they all snuggled into their separate leafy spots, they began their next session.

"Who do you like Ryintha?" inquired Rvatial, perfectly well knowing she liked Karza, who was around the other side of the charred rock.

"Uhhmm, well" Ryintha murmured, not wanting to really get herself in whatever embarrassment he was trying to get her into.

"Come on, why won't you tell us? We've all told you."

"Leave me alone. You've already asked me oh so many times. Leave it be"

"Fine"

The rest of the group was used to this by now. This was their daily introduction. Karza and Kirthe were twins, but they never got into the pattern that the other two had. Arguments were common between Ryintha and Rva, but not with them. They liked to keep it peaceful between themselves.

Silence still came over all of them, as they began to think of things to talk about. Sometimes they would go time without saying anything more than the usual. Today was different. Karza almost spoke up without giving them more than five minutes.

"So, you know how the other day you said how we don't know enough about our world to think of anything different in the first place?" Karza stated. "Well, I think we should go exploring around the woods. Perhaps every other day? What do you all say about it?"

"Uhhh, well, I don't know," said Kirthe. "What if there's some rabid animal?"

"You know that if we take long strong sticks we call all beat it back together"

"I'm in," exclaimed Rvatial, happy to talk now that someone else had broken the silence. "I've waited for something that isn't that boring around here for a long time now. Its about time we did something interesting after chores everyday"

"Sure, why not? It couldn't hurt, could it?" Added Narste

"Well, fine, then I'm in too, chimed Kirthe.

"Even though I'm not the adventure type like you three, I'll go too, if Kirthe is going too," said Ryintha gloomily.

"You never know, it might be fun!" said Karza.

"I guess so" she replied.

"Shall we meet here tomorrow right after chores? Maybe with some nice big sticks to beat back those rabid beasties, eh Kirthe?" teased Rva.

"Just because I ask the most hypothetical questions around here doesn't mean you have to be mean about it! Kirthe retorted.

"I was kidding, you know. Don't get so mad about it!" It was Rvatial's way of showing he liked her. Kirthe didn't seem to see it that way. Sometimes he had gone a bit too far. It wasn't pleasant when he did, and he didn't want to ruin his chances.

They once again all sat back, resting and thinking, letting the time drift away.

It didn't seem like long when Rvatial exclaimed suddenly, "We've been here long enough. If we don't get back soon enough, our parents will have our hides tanned and set up to dry in the bright sun!" as he looked towards the treetops. "Ryintha and I should get going now."

"Okay, we all should start to get going too. I think I'll have to milk the cow again tonight, since my older sister sprained her wrist last night." Explained Narste.

"We might as well go then too, right Karza?"

"Yeah, probably. We'll get bored here without no one around."

They all left their meeting place of the charred rock on that fateful day. To others, many ages away, it was the beginning of the strange group.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Where the Flowers Grow

After chores the next day, they all came down to the charred rock, where they prepared themselves with things they had found and borrowed from their parents. Rva with a long, heavy branch, made of strong oak and a long hunting bow he borrowed from his father, Ryintha with a staff and foodstuffs, Narste with a dagger, a redwood medium length branch, along with a tinderbox. Karza and Kirthe were also there, Karza with double oak branches, and Kirthe decided that and a small oak branch would be best for herself. So they set out from the charred rock site with not much on their minds. All of them thought it would be a grand adventure, learning great things along the way. They all turned out disappointed at first, just trudging through the forest, but after a half an hour longer, when they started to get out of the forest, they became amazed at the bright day.

"Today at home was really dark, wasn't it?" asked Rva.

"Compared to yesterday, it was," Kirthe replied

"Don't you think it looks just as bright as yesterday here?"

"It's too hard to judge, I'd say." Added Narste.

"I suppose you're right, but I think I can see things more clearly at far distances, like I could yesterday, when the brightness in the forest was around." Rvatial said as he swiftly leaped over a fallen log.

"Lets not go much further today, or else our parents will get either worried or mad at us because we aren't around to help with the evening chores." Ryintha observed, looking at the treetops, just as her twin had the day before.

"We should just head a bit further, because we'll have to come all this way if we want to go any farther than this on later trips." Said Karza

"I agree, lets go at least a bit further today, we still have time to explore," replied Narste. "Everyone okay with that?"

"I think we should head back. There may be something ahead that will try and eat us. You remember the tales of the monster sized cats we've heard about from our parents every month during the village convention thing, where the elders all tell us of old things." Said Kirthe, always the one that was more cautious than the rest.

"I suppose, but still, we still have time, and you know it. Its not like we're going to go awaken some monster that is going to chase us through the forest until we get back home." Rva told her.

"Okay, fine, but if anything happens, I'm gonna blame you, you know?"

"Fine"

So, they went further from their home, and out of the edge of the forests. Upon arriving, and seeing bright colors of great blues, greens, and yellows, they rushed ahead, where they found the edge of the forest, and a vast expanse of land, carpeted with a lush green bed of beautiful flowers. Vast waves of scented wind ruffled their clothing, And a mound garbed with strange red wooded trees stood before them, and a strange stone building shrine was barely noticeable through the leafy boughs of the red wooded trees. Upon reaching the edge, where trees no longer existed, they slowly walked out where the start of the mound began its upward slope. When they reached this area, they had just begun to process what they had all come through, when a roar of ground shaking proportions smashed through the woods where they had just come from. Sensing great danger, the group of five sprinted towards the stone shrine at the top, out of instinct. Once they were halfway up the mound, a monster of a cat came sprinting out of the woods, from whence they came. Seeing this, they all doubled up their speed, in hope to get to the stone structure, and hopefully, safety. Narste, being the unspecified, yet undoubted, leader of the group, looked back, and having a very calculating mind, he knew they could not make it quite in time. The monster was coming up at least twice as fast as them, and showed no signs of tiring. He knew they would have to fight, and was not happy with the thought. Sure he loved exercising, and using his muscles, but fighting wasn't all that great. Karza was his opposite in that matter. So, knowing they would have to at least strike back, before they could get into the stone shrine, he yelled out to his little group of adventurers.

"We can't get there before it reaches us! Lets make a half circle formation, and guard from it while we back into the shrine. Kirthe, Ryintha, be on the edges, since so its less likely to attack you two, and also serve as the rearguards. Karza, take my right, and Rva, my left."

"Okay then," acknowledged Rvatial

"Got it," said the rest of them

They then reached the part where the mound started to level out, straightening more and more until it got completely flat. Following Narste's orders, they grouped into formation. Karza and his sister on right side of him, and Rva and Ryintha on his left. The five of them began their backward defense formation, knowing that the strange monster cat would soon be upon them.

"Uhhh, Crap…the cat thing has cover in the woods. We no longer do. Ryintha, Kirthe, keep good watch, because it may sneak up on the sides of us." Relayed Narste.

They continued the backward retreat formation for a good hundred yards until the Cat caught up with them. Coming on towards Karza, it sprinted, showing no signs of speeding up or slowing down.

"Prepare for impact, it may be hard to repel at how fast its running" advised Narste again.

"Its coming towards me" said Karza, realizing it's course.

In response to the situation that was coming, Kirthe told them "We've only got another fifteen yards to go! We can make it! I think…."

Karza, bringing up and bracing his two oak branches, caught the impact perfectly, without even getting smashed to the ground. Narste, being the leader, came and smashed his red branch upon the cat. Yet, he found his branch going right through the beast, yet, his hands caught and touched the feline beast. Quickly, even after being surprised, he brought his hands off of the cat. He still had his redwood stick where it didn't go into the cat, but not any of what had gone through the black and white pawed beast.

"Retreat to the stone!" Narste cried

They all ran in a full out sprint to the stone shelter, while Narste dropped his stick handles and brought out his knife he had with him. Rvatial, Ryintha, Kirthe, and Karza had all just made it through the doorway, with Narste close behind. Just as Narste jumped in through the doorway like opening, the cat caught his back muscle in his right leg with an oversized claw, which pierced the muscle completely. Yet, the momentum of the jump even brought the cat partway through the doorway. A shimmering blue blast of light filled the doorway, as if liquid where it touched the arm of the cat.

"Foolish guardian!" came a high-pitched voice coming from all directions.

Slowly, as the blue glow of light shimmering looking fluid covered the cat's body completely, smoothed out over the body, and once completely serene, smashed inwards, crushing the guardian into a black spherical mass, where it dropped to the stone floor, slowly rolling down into the darkness, and a massive slab of stone came down from outside, covering the doorway.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Into the Darkness

Narste gritted his teeth from the great pain. Ryintha, the one with all the food, in case they might have gotten hungry along the way, slung her pack gracefully off her back and onto the floor directly next to Narste. She brought out a soft light brown leather bag of out which she brought out some jerky, which she gave to Narste to chew on, while she began to tend to his leg, where the Cat's claw had pierced his muscle, which effectively disabled him.

"I didn't think I'd ever need any of what my mother taught me about taking care of wounds," she laughed out nervously. "Good thing I also brought along some ointments and some numbing herbs"

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Ryintha," said Narste weakly.

"This really sucks, guys. What are we going to do? We can't go all the way back with Narste having his leg like that, and there still might be some other "guardian" that we didn't see or hear when we were running up here" remarked Karza. "So, what can we still do, other than wait here until Narste can at least walk?" Karza didn't seem to notice or care that they couldn't get out due to the stone blocking the entrance.

"We can always go further in and see if we can find anything that can help us," replied Kirthe. "If the legend of the monstrous cat beast was true, then what else could be? There is the legend of the Eveocleas." The healer, Yautala, the fire beast, Tirfi, the ice woman, Bejiva, the air girl, Wyilern, the plant master, Trakelilo, the water manipulator, Rumin, the old woman of the earth, Mythrethe, and the last one, the most powerful of them, the gravity enhancer. I can't remember his name though, can you, Ryintha?"

"Nope not at all" she responded, still taking care of Narste's wounds.

"You can never say for sure, though, can you? One piece of something legend being true doesn't mean all of them are." Countered Karza.

"You know you just don't want to accept that, Karza. You know its true now. You saw that "guardian's" power, and how it did…something…to those red oak branches I tried to attack it with," replied Narste, feeling a bit better. "There has to be something more inside that is much more powerful. You saw what it did to it's own guardian once it violated this place. I'm not sure whether to call this place a sanctuary, or a tomb. Lets head further in. We might as well, because we're not getting out anytime soon. I can use the wall as a support, while we're going further in."

"As much as I know I hate it, we've really got no other choice. I'll follow Narste, to wherever he may go." Said Kirthe, Responding to Narste's little speech.

"Then lets go!" decided Rvatial. "I don't think anyone is willing to split up and go different ways in here."

No one protested. They all knew now that they must go further in. So, they all rested near the fallen entrance, knowing Narste couldn't make it far without resting.

Once they all woke, the decided it was time to depart for wherever they may go. Whether it would lead out eventually, or farther into the stone shrine. They all began to pack up their things, and they decided that Rva and Ryintha should take turns supporting Narste first, and then in fifteen or so minutes, shift with the other two twins.

So, they began their way down, deep into the darkness, where they didn't know what was waiting for them. Eventually, fifteen minutes passed, where they stopped. They had found the black ball of mass that had rolled down after being crushed from the guardian. It, now desiring revenge on it's master, who had served it an injustice such as it had been given. Letting the five rest, it slowly began to roll. At first, the five barely noticed, but Narste, being the one injured, and having nothing else to do other than try and not put as much of a burden on the two supporting him, spotted it.

"Hey! The black ball is moving! Lets follow it."

Being the unquestioned leader of the group, Narste's commands were almost followed immediately, with very little questioning going on in their minds. Karza and Kirthe came over, to help support him, and began moving after the mass, into the unknown, and soon, into the darkness.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Where are We?

Soon, after following it, they started to tire, and the dark was getting worse. The blue light all of them had had before to help them see, was fading into the background, the passageways behind them. Then, they all saw the multi-branched passage in front of them, before so, opening up into a semicircle room. Surprisingly, the black ball also stopped. Moved by the spark of life within it, it moved towards the twenty-first one to the right, and resumed it's usual pace. Too tired to go on, they all collapsed, although all marking the passage the ball took, within their minds.

Fifteen minutes later, they once again, pushing with all their strength, took the passage they knew the black mass had taken. After winding through the narrow passage, Kirthe knew something was strange. Something was in the air. Something strange, a never before felt presence. Rva, on the other hand, could feel that the passage had been winding more to the left than to the right. The rest were too intent on just keeping up and using their last reserves of strength to pay much attention. Yet, the journey didn't last long. Unexpectedly, on a sharp turn, they found themselves at the opening of a grand white domed circular room, a full 50 feet high, and at least with a diameter of 100 feet.

Putting down Narste, they all sat down to rest, all noticing the strange black orb within the middle of the room. And, along with seeing the orb, they saw the black mass retreat to the orb, and, with a burst of speed, smash directly into the orb, which simply absorbed it with no difficulty, almost welcoming it, yet not. Everyone, despite the strange events, then promptly fell asleep, hoping for the events to just be a dream.

Everyone slowly woke up, hours later, woken by the now gleaming light, pulsing from the walls, coming from all directions. But, to them it almost seemed as the light hung in the air, not moving. The first thing the all noticed was the door behind them was no longer open. It was almost as if it had never existed. The surface of the walls around where they had entered didn't seem as if there had ever been an entrance. They now also had time to study the surrounding walls of the domed structure. They were almost the pure light color that seemed to be hanging in the air, along with very light blues and greens, making curled designs and other such patterns. Many times, where the eight supporting beams ran along the walls up to the center, were intensified patterns, and, in some cases, a color that was not usually found in the normal design patterns. The five had never seen such a beautiful room, coming from their forest homes composed of forest wood and thatched roofs. Among all these designs, were different eight different symbols, that stretched along the sides of the walls, between the support beams. All different colors. Finally, after all of them were filled with awe, and could speak again, regaining control of their jaws.

"I've never seen such a huge room," gaped Kirthe

"Neither have I. We're all used to such humble wooden huts," said Karza, the part-time, smart-aleck of the group.

"Well, duh, we've never really been outside the village." Rva snapped back at him. "Lets explore the room more, and see if there's anything we can use to get out of here."

Ryintha, still shocked with the awe of the place, remained silent, along with Narste, who was still sleeping, because of his leg wound.

"If we ever get back to the village, our parents are gonna have our hides," Karza whispered, also being a person to look at the whole picture.

Narste, woke up, after the commotion the rest of the group had began to start. Although he was somewhat annoyed with them, he was awed with the room as they had been, and it took him some time to soak up the whole image into his mind. It didn't take him long though, and when he did, he became more peaceful than he would of without.

"What shall we do," Ryintha said, no longer completely held by awe. "We're stranded here, with nothing else to do, but sit here, and hope we can get out sometime, without dying in here first, from lack of food and water."

"We don't have much to do, you're right. There is that thing…" Karza said, pointing to the misty white, balled mass suspended in the middle of the room.

Looking more disturbed than anyone else in the room, and fighting the draw of the misty balled mass in the middle of the room, Rva asked, "is anyone else feeling that something is in that," pointing toward the object trying to pull him towards itself.

Everyone else, silenced by Rva's remark, looked toward the center of the room. They all felt it, and began to feel what they thought Rva said he was feeling. With a flash of light, and a light rumble around the room, and a small shake of the ground, they all blacked out, this time, not from exhaustion.

Moments, minutes, hours, or even days later, they all found themselves in the middle of a woody clearing, all around the trunk of a overly large tree, where they were just out of sight of each other. Not seeing each other, and thinking they were all still together, they mumbled, almost in perfect unison, "Where are we?"

The distant rumble of thunder seemed to reply.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Battle Fire

Although they had all at first taken consideration of where they were, it didn't take them more than a few seconds to note that their pack was lying beside them, And that they were no longer wearing their usual clean leather and rough cloth exploring outfits, which were now stuffed in their bags. They noticed their light plate armor, hard leather armor, and weapons in their sheaths leaned up against the tree. Each and every one of them began to have thoughts race through their head, like Karza, the thought of being on some grand mission, alone. Meanwhile, his twin counterpart only thought of trying to survive, and hoping she wasn't alone. The other set of twins, for being so argumentative, were thinking much alike. They both planned on trying to find the others, and getting back to their simple life at home. Narste, on the other hand, was different. He was surprised, more so than all the rest. His leg no longer hurt. It was completely healed, and ready for travel. Narste accepted the fact that he no longer had his disability, and immediately started to plan on finding the others and getting them back safely. He didn't know how, but he knew he had to. Somehow his instinct just told him to. He had learned to obey it long ago, or feel the wrath of his mistakes

For every different person of the group, all they could see within their sight looking out, was deep forest. The forest didn't start for at least ten yards from the tree though. They took note of that.

Karza, being very adventurous, packed up his things. He attached his sword sheaths to his belt, after he had drawn them out to examine them, noting that they were beyond any level of skill he possessed, and made out of a tinted blue shining metal. He did not know what it was, nor did he care. They were awesome blades, and all his now, along with the set of the same type of metal armor he was wearing. The armor, he noticed, was fairly heavy, plated almost everywhere, except the joint pieces, where they allowed for more movement.

Not even thinking of the others, Karza began to walk away from the edge of the tree. Then, was when he, and the rest of the group, heard the great piercing shriek, echoing from the right side of the tree, looking back and to the right, for Karza. Everyone else, startled, grabbed their things, minds intent on what they had just heard.

Karza was the last of the five to reach the rest of the group, where they were staring at the monstrous fiery air bird beast, hovering above a young woman, no older than the youngest of the group, Kirthe. Without wasting anymore time, Narste, once again, took lead of the group, thinking of tactics and planning to take down enemy. Without orders, Rva took out his quiver and polished yew shortbow, which he quickly strung, nocked an arrow into, and released

Intent on it's prey hadn't realized until now the group, being pierced by the arrow deeply buried underneath folds of skin and blazing feathers, being weakened by the arrow, the bird sank lower, partly from the wound, and it was preparing to strike. Although Rva had stuck a deep blow, much to his surprise, it was not dead. Narste, even through his own anger, realized the chance when he saw it. Yelling a battle cry, and an order to charge and surround the enemy, they began their first real battle.

Each had their weapons, which they barely knew how to use well enough not to hurt each other, and to inflict some injuries to what they wanted to. Thunder rumbled once again, this time closer. Narste, in the lead, came down first, with his long steel blade, slashing at the fowl's legs, just to have the blade deflected. Karza, trailing behind him, decided a stab would probably work quite well, jammed his blue tinted sword deep within, hoping to hit something vital. It didn't work, and instead, he got it just to the point where it realized something was there, and it hurt. It countered, throwing Karza and Narste to the ground, yet not too hurt.

Just arriving, Rva yelled out to them "Watch out for its talons!"

Karza, just recovering from being smashed to the ground, taking heed of Rva's warning, brought up his wooden handled Mithril blade up, just in time to deflect a potentially piercing blow to the spleen. The bird flew higher.

Narste, noticing this, called for the three to regroup. "Come on guys, lets get back in formation." He yelled, trying to calculate what might be able to defeat the flaming bird. Thunder rumbled once again in the dark sky, heralding the beginning of the pouring rain. Now, the bird, no longer distracted by the group, and more by the coming storm, no longer held any interest in what was going to be it's offering. It flew off, to where it's cave held it safe from extinguishing its flames.

Ryintha and Kirthe, being the less warlike of the five, and not being close in on the battle, immediately ran over to check on the young girl they had heard shriek. She was dressed in fine cloths, or the finest the group had ever seen. Her feet were enclosed in soft worn leather boots. A fine soft purple leather cloak with gold embroidery was wrapped around her shoulders, which could wrap completely around her, and a knee length light purple skirt, which was partially covered by a dark blue shirt and leather belt. The sprinkles of rain began to grow to waves and sheets of water. Not wanting to get wet themselves, and the girl they had just rescued, they all took cover under the great tree, half dragging their unconscious companion along with them.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Stranger

They all waited patiently underneath the tree, at the start of the rain. Blood pulsed through all their veins, pounding everywhere, just from a mix of sheer terror, curiosity, excitement, and other emotions swirling throughout their bodies. The strange girl they had saved had not yet revived, yet she was still breathing. Slowly, as if they had all just met each other after a few years again, they began to talk amongst themselves.

"I wonder how we got here," Kirthe absentmindedly said to herself.

Overhearing her, her sibling replied "Its probably that stupid black orb that was in the middle of the room. What else could it have been?"

"You never know." Ryintha said. "That place was so strange that it could have been anything."

"Do we really have time to think about that now, guys? We're stuck somewhere far from the village, and we have no clue where we are. Sure, this girl may be able to help us, but you never know." Remarked Narste coldly. "Lets get back. Our parents are already gonna be so pissed that we're not back in time for night chores."

Narste was still somewhat angered at Rva, for shooting the firebird, without his orders. Rvatial could tell, and purposely tried to not give him any reason to get any angrier.

The girl, wrapped in her smooth leather cloak, quietly awoke, not catching their notice, in their new conversation about a plan to get back to their home. "Silly them" she thought, catching on to their voices "They're legendary warriors, meant to fight for us. They have no home to go to." And then, immediately, her second thought was, " Lucky for me the offering wasn't taken to when summoning the warriors." She listened further, beginning to catch all their names, and barely opening her eyes. The leader, she supposed, was the one with the strange colored hair, silver plated sword strapped on his belt, must be Narste. "What a weird name, she thought. Sounds really old. All of them do, and for some reason he seems like fire too, maybe a hint of air. None of the rest of them quite seem like that. They smell…different." Next was the really armored blonde boy. She quickly figured out his name. Karza. And he reminded her of the other blonde, Kirthe. Even to her, even with the looser robes she wore, she could tell she was beautiful, with her long hair going down her back. She could almost feel the strong earth aura around her, just being five or so feet away from here. Wow, she remarked silently to herself. Last she came to the two that always seemed to be warm to each other, yet not in a touchy kind of way. "must be siblings" she once again thought silently. The boy's name she quickly heard. Rva. Or at least that's what all the others were calling him. He a loose leather jerkin, and lots of other dark leather items. She noticed for one that he was the only one wearing gloves. She didn't count Karza's gauntlets as gloves. His aura radiated an earthy ice feeling, mixed with a bit of plant control. "Might go pretty well with his bow, and strange blue-tinted copper handled blade." Last, was the girl she suspected to be Rva's sibling. It took her almost forever to catch her name, seeing as she didn't talk a lot, and wasn't talked back to in return. In the meanwhile, she looked for an aura, and was blown away. Waves of unrelenting earthly smells came at her, interlaced with great amounts of life force. While mentally forcing her vision to work normally, she caught her name. It was pretty, she decided, as she repeated Ryintha's name in her head a couple times.

The rain relented, showing some signs of giving up, shifting their attention from the conversation, in which they had gotten almost nowhere, to the rain, which was now reflecting light from the sun which had broken out in a small area of the sky.

"Well, lets see if she's awoken, shall we not?" Rvatial said, breaking their brief silence from while watching the rain.

No one protested, so they let Kirthe go over and check on her. Kirthe wasn't surprised at the least to find that she was awake.

"I better introduce you to the rest of us. And maybe you can tell us where we are. We've got no clue where we are, or what happened to us."

Not wanting to seem intelligent and all, the newcomer followed Kirthe back to the group.

"Maybe I should just pretend to act dumb for right now. It might let me lead them back to the village easier, instead of having them venture off away from where I'm supposed to take them." She thought. "Simple speech will be best, and for all I know, the heroes aren't all that literate. Perhaps they'll come back to the village if I act like I don't understand them."

Kirthe, leading her in tow, immediately started to introduce them to her. Yet, even after they had all introduced themselves, each in their own way, she still refrained from saying anything, much to their disappointment.

"I've got them wondering, at least," she thought silently. "This might work better than expected." Then, finally summoning the right words, the girl spoke. "Emoc noc em. Oyekat rouy ot al egalliv," meanwhile beckoning with her left hand. The rest of the group looked on her with not much surprise.

"We should have known she would speak a different language. Even though they're kinda just legends, in a sense." Exclaimed Karza, just now setting his brain to work on the problem. "Why would anyone use them, anyway?"

Rvatial looked at him in disgust. He had always known Karza wasn't quite as quick as the rest of them, but he shouldn't have to have every single thing explained to him….

"Whatever. Lets follow her and see where she's going. Someone else might know our lagnague, or however you say it." Narste walked over to his bags and slung them over his back, hoping the rest of them would too. He was ready to get somewhere, instead of waiting around while it wasn't raining anymore.

The rest of the group went over to the tree, packing their strange new belongings in their bags and with the rest of what had magically appeared. Yet, there was the straggler Karza. He didn't trust this new girl they had rescued. He just didn't trust her, but didn't care that much if they followed her. Karza just knew that something seemed strange about her. He picked up his bag, following last out of the group of six, thinking. And thinking more than he probably ever had in his life.

Meanwhile, Rvatial was thinking about this new girl too. He, although, unlike Karza, wanted to know more about her. Who was she? Why was she here? Did she have anything to do with us being transported here? More questions rumbled through his mind, not finding answers, yet desperately wishing he had an answer for everything.

Kirthe and Ryintha on the other hand, didn't have many questions. All they thought about right now was that they were stranded. No luxuries of home. They were far away from home, in a strange land. They were helpless, relying for the most part on their twins and Narste.

The strange girl they had just rescued led the way, plunging into the lush, dense forest, to an unknown destination.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Abandoned Followers

She lead quietly, smashing through the undergrowth hardly making a sound. Meanwhile, they all crushed through behind, making sounds and tracks that could be followed by anyone. She looked back at them, irked, but said nothing and kept going. They didn't care, and kept going, looking for some sign of something that marked civilization, and hopefully a way to get back to their village, except for Karza, who still wanted to go adventuring, secretly.

Late afternoon passed slowly, to the newcomers to the land, yet to the new companion, if flew by, as if they had just been traveling through the woods for a couple hours. She looked up at the sun, through the leaves, just barely finding it. "Judging it's position in the sky, and mentally calculating the distance from it's highpoint and the plain's edge, perhaps we have another three and a half hours before it sets beneath the skyline. We should be able to make it. Now, should I dare risk revealing myself and letting them know I know their language, instead of using a highly new form of speech? Maybe…"

"Hey, my town should be only two hours ahead. Can you guys keep going?" she asked in a very light voice, yet making sure everyone could hear.

"The girls look exhausted…" Narste replied, not so surprised that she could actually speak their tongue. "…yet I could go for another hour, at this pace. The wet from the recent rain doesn't help either though. I'm not sure about Rva and Karza though. You can go another hour, can't you Rva, Karza?"

"I'm sure I could go another hour and a half, and not even be as tired as Karza." Rva said, as he wiped some sweat off of his forehead.

"I'm almost beat, but I think I can go for another hour." Karza panted, while leaning over gasping for breath. "If it just weren't for this heavy armor, I'd be fine"

"Here, go take it off over there," Rva pointed over into some trees. "I'll take one of your packs, and you can change into your comfortable clothes from home, and stuff all your armor into itself or something."

Karza didn't care to retort, being so exhausted from traveling, and just wanting to get the hot breastplate off at the least. So, untying the strangely placed straps, he began to release his torso from the warm wet metal. "So much better" he whispered silently to himself, as he pulled his dry tunic over where his upper plate body had been. Karza, determined that it would be too much of a pain to take off the rest of it, along with carrying it along with him, so he decided to leave it on. Describing the feeling of having air through some of his body, he would have only been able to say, "heavenly" at the time.

"Lets get going. We don't have much time to waste." The girl said.

Ryintha and Kirthe were tired and beginning to get sore, but they were eager to reach the town where there were possibly beds and a bath, or possibly even a hot spring. They had both slept on the ground outside before, and didn't like it. Too hard. They much preferred their raised soft cots they had gotten used to sleeping on at home in their parent's huts.

They set off once again, sweating as they went plowing a new path through the forest. It seemed as if it was getting even denser, and they weren't startling as many animals as they went. "We're getting closer. Hold out, just for another fifteen minutes." She said again as she looked back, seeing that some encouragement was needed.

She thought more about them as she led the way through the deep forest. "They don't seem like heroes to me. More like normal kids, just older than me. Although, I suppose the Archsage did say that they always ended up much much stronger after training. They must be stronger than they look then." Her thoughts didn't get to keep on that trail, as they broke out of the deep forest wall into the sandstone flat rock, the entrance to her village.

They all popped out right after her, almost put into shock from the harsh difference between the forest and the sandstone rock cliff that towered above them, reflecting sun across the side of it, almost reflecting it perfectly, so as if when you faced the wall to the right, the sun's rays would double upon your eyes.

She gave them a rest, letting their clothes dry some while they stood and sat around resting some and catching their breaths. Yet, to them it was all a quick rest, even though it lasted at least fifteen minutes. Again they set off, this time through a massive crevice in the cliff, that was hardly identifiable to them until they saw their undecided leader pass through it.

"Follow right behind me. Its not far now, and we need to get there by sundown, if you want to make it!" came a high echo from the crevice crack in the cliff. They plodded over to the crevice.

"I'm gonna die at this rate. It seems hard to believe that just half a day ago, we were just setting out from the charred rock," Kirthe commented. "I wonder how long it'll take us to get back…." She sighed, beginning to really miss home.

The rest didn't care, too tired now to speak, even after resting. They squeezed themselves through the crack, coming into a larger sized crevice, where they had room to walk two across, and not having to worry about scraping their new clothes on the sides of the smooth sandstone sides. They appreciated this, as they had had to walk behind one another in the forest, always waiting for the next person to take another step before they could move forward. In a way, they almost considered it a luxury, as they picked up their speed, trying to catch up to "the girl" as they had been calling her, since she wouldn't give a name to go by. It being so much easier, and the darkness of the crevice cooled them down, they began to jog, letting the sweat evaporate from their foreheads and clothes, leaving behind the sticky residue that made their clothes still stick to them, until they peeled it off of their skin.

The canyon like passage they walked along through got tighter, until they eventually had to stop jogging, and fall back in a single file line, with Narste in front, leading, as always, and then Rva and Ryintha, and last of all the other two twins. Karza stood out the most though, because of his missing platebody, and in place of it, his homespun shirt. Suddenly, the passage took a sharp turn to the right, and in another twenty steps, a sharp left turn, where they became exposed to the gentle, soft gusts of wind the prairie. Not all was prairie land and grass though. Much of it appeared to be massive gardens. The five took a few more steps out and cleared the shear cliff face, where they could see all the massive farms in front of them, and to both sides. Besides where they farms stood, was a town, much like their own, or at least from what they could tell. The shine from the red gold sun threw rays down into their eyes blinding them. With renewed energy, as the sun set, the five set off once again, toward the reddening skyline, toward the town, straight in front of them.

Only minutes later, they lifted their heads, looking again for the town, now that the sun was down. It was nowhere to be seen. Again, they looked, turning back and forth, looking every which direction. Rva saw it first, not hesitating to turn around to look for the missing town, although, it wasn't there. Only a shimmering outline of a tower could be seen, almost fading more and more as he trained his eyes upon it.

"Hey, look everyone. Back there!"

Without hesitating, the rest looked back, where they saw the wooden tower melt into nothing but air.

"Must be something what she meant when she said that we could be able to make it by sundown." Ryintha murmured, disappointed at their luck. " I wonder what happened to it."

The party headed back toward where they came, looking for the crevice. The couldn't find it, but knew they must make camp before the air was devoid of all light. They didn't remember pulling off their outer layers of sweat soaked clothes, and spreading themselves on the tall grass and drifting to sleep.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Teacher of the Tower

A loud smash frightened them from their sleep, making them all shiver and scramble to stand. It was just before dawn, and the darkness still reigned, except for the light casting staff, which was held by a youthful woman, dressed in deep blue robes, almost like the girl they had followed all yesterday.

"State your business here. If you have no business with us, depart now." The robed woman spoke. "We can't have people distracting the villagers and keeping them from their fields."

None of them knew what to say exactly, but Narste spoke, "There isn't a village here, is there? We saw a tower coming back this way, but the village was quite a distance to the strange cliff passage."

"You came through the cliff passage? Ah, you must be the ones she said she brought back along with her. Very well. Pack up your things. We'll move them into the tower, and hear your story."

"Why do we have any reason to follow you, or even talk with you?" Kirthe asked, quite interested in everything that was happening, but also now concerned with what they would do.

"We can always use some help with the chores around, if you don't have the potential that even she sensed in you. I'm not sure how, but even she could sense it, and she is only a novice mage, but four of you have extreme potential for magic, except for him," nodding at Karza, Fine mages you could all make, even if you're way older than the rest of them here at the tower.

"Where is this "Tower" that you speak of, anyway? We saw one last night, or the outline of one shimmering." Rvatial interrupted her, wanting to know more about it, since apparently they would be here for a while, learning this "magic."

"You'll see," the strange woman yawned out, as she magically reduced the shimmer of the staff to an almost non-existent state. "It'll come with the sun."

With the brightness of the staff's light gone, the sunrise's bare rays could be noticed. The orange light slowly pulsed over everything, when the top on the sun came over the line of the horizon, shining fire into the clouds and over everything in sight.

"Look there," pointed the robed lady. "The spell will come off soon, and we will be able to view it."

As the sun rose, where it wouldn't be obscured by the horizon, a village took shape, where they had seen it the night before.

"Ah, we saw that the night before," they all said in their own words, together.

"Watch now. Tell me later." She responded.

Farther the sun rose, where upon a tower shape began to show, reflecting light from it's metal cover, windows, and crystal that adorned the top. It was magnificent to all of them. They had never seen much anything like this before. Even all the buildings were much better than at home, with roofs that were tiled with red, blue, and sometimes green shingles. The walls were simply made of earth, yet still had an outside cover on them, making the walls appear white and smooth. Only the village elders had anything of the such back at home, and even then, the walls weren't near as smooth. Muddy clay between the wood logs was the best they could get, and the mud was never very smooth, unless they somehow found some extremely pure clay. That was rare though.

They kept following their robed guide through the town's worn street-paths. Finally, they came to the tower's outside entrance gate. Here, the great copper plated iron bars flared in the dawn's light, just beginning it's blinding gleam for the day. Upon reaching the gate, she muttered "Ey slahl ebsa gosd. epon" the gates swung noiselessly toward them, leaving a gap open enough for them to all come through in pairs. They weren't tired, so they followed her through, warily.

"Slae tus creset," and the metal gates swiftly went back to their closed position, where they shut tightly, unlike before when they were opened. "Come on, you five. I'm sure Ayriena will be interested to see you all."

All of them assumed that was the mage girl's name. The guy's didn't care much, but, like most girls, Ryintha and Kirthe automatically started thinking how nice the name was. Just like Ayriena had thought about their names the day before.

Seeing them all like they had just had something completely new showed to them, she understood. "She didn't tell you her name, did she? She was always forgetful like that in class." They walked through the seasonal trees and long grasses, coming before the tower entrance door. "Oh, silly me. I say that Ayriena doesn't remember things, but I'm just as bad. I'm Furai, one of the mage teachers here. Don't be afraid to introduce yourselves."

The five newcomers to the tower stood there looking at her like cows. "Fine, if you're not going to give out your own names by yourself, then I'll have to call on you each, like my students." Directing her voice at Narste, she inquired his name. She continued through them all, going with Rvatial, then his twin, and last Karza and his twin. "Ah, twins, are you four? Interesting…"

Furai finally decided to shut up, since they weren't going to be any more talkative than they already appeared. Better let them soak it up. The silence reigned for a minute of walking through the stone brick tower, upon the simple long red rugs laid in the middle of the passageway. Bare plain stone edged the outer rims, near the walls. Every once and a while, a wooden door would also come along, which they would take notice of.

Suddenly, as they came to the fifth small stairway, from the tower's walls came a ringing rumble. They had never heard anything like it before. It lasted for a few seconds, and stopped, but was followed by a gushing of young children.

"Ah, lets get to someplace where we can get out of the way of the students. They've got a pretty tight time schedule. Lets get out of the way and not distract them."

It was too late. She didn't realize an empty room was so far away, and all six of them became swamped, except for Furai, who seemed to be able to navigate through the mess without smashing into too many of them. It didn't take long for the rest to fall in behind her, realizing that she knew the way around in the crowds.

Before they reached the empty room Furai was heading for, the students all came inquiring to her about the new five people. It took them no time at all to realize that their strange clothes weren't from anywhere even remotely near the school. Karza, for one, was extremely glad he had taken off the rest of his armor, which now hung around and in his bag he was carrying over his shoulder.

It didn't take Furai long to silence the pupils mobbing them, and send them on their way, yet still a few of the youngest ones hung around them, hoping to at least get their names. Furai promised to tell them all in her class tomorrow, if she was able to. They scattered with that, seemingly now aware of the amount of time left before they needed to get to their next class.

Again the reverberating, rumbling ring came through the halls.

"We won't have to worry about that again, or at least we shouldn't," Furai said, attempting to get their mouths moving. "Unless perhaps I get lost, but that never happens."

The others didn't appreciate her humor, and made no sign whatsoever of being amused. Furai continued on, heading for another staircase. It hadn't taken Narste and the rest long to figure that they hated staircases. They were extremely tiring, and to them, it felt strange.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Sage of the Mages

When they finally reached their destination, Furai stopped them. "Be polite in here. You'll not want to gain a bad reputation with the sage." She opened the ornate wooden door, ushering them all in, and then shutting it behind them.

Inside, they saw the most magnificent place in the whole of the tower. Within was a great table, made of solid wood. A lush red rug covered the bottom of the room, except for the inch edge close to the walls. Bookcases lined the walls, going up to the ceiling, crammed with manuscripts, books, and other written things. Before they all had the chance to examine the other parts of the room, one of the figures at the table told them to sit down.

"So, I understand that you five ran into Ayriena out near the great tree, and drove off the blazecua while she was unconscious?." The older man in the middle of the table said. To the left of him was the girl they had followed here, dressed in the same thing as yesterday, except cleaner, To the left there was a scribe, who was scribbling fiercely on a piece of paper.

Narste, taking his usual leadership position, began to respond. "Yeah, we attacked the flaming bird thing, and drove it off. At the time we couldn't really hurt it, except for the arrow that Rvatial shot at it." He motioned at Rva. "We didn't kill it, just held it off until the rain came and it flew away." He continued from there, describing what they had come through, all the way until they had fallen asleep last night on the grasses of the plains.

"I see," said the elder man sitting between Ayriena and the scribe. He took his hands off the table, lowering them to rest on his lap. A loud purr came from his, as he started to move his hands. Unseen to the rest, a large, orange cat laid in his lap, where he was stroking it gently. "Ayriena, do you have anything else to say?"

"No, I don't," she whispered to the elder man to her left.

"Very well, you are dismissed. You're expected to be in your next class when the bell rings." She walked over to the door, somewhat carefully, bowed, and left.

"As for you five, I'd like an explanation for why you were at the great tree. Not many know the way there, and even fewer have ever been there."

Kirthe jumped in before all the rest, catching his attention. "We don't know how we got there. We have no clue where we are. We're really just looking for a way to get back home.

"Wherever that may be," muttered Karza under his breath, just loud enough for everyone but the older man to hear.

"Well, come look at the map then, and I'll see if you recognize any terrain." Moving the black-flecked orange cat onto Ayriena's chair, he stood up, showing his tall height. Dressed in his light green robes, he walked over to a bookcase, gently pulling out a long scroll, aged a deep solid brown. Before long, he was back in his own seat, with the cat back on his lap.

"So, where was it like where you five came from? Sandy, humid, dry, cold? Come on, speak up.

"The village was mostly in a lot of trees, and it had a couple streams going through it." Ryintha said, interested in the map he held.

"There aren't a lot of forests around here. The closest one is the one you came through, but it couldn't hold a village of the size you described without someone coming by and finding it.

They all looked at him, puzzled. Ryintha spoke for them all. "What's a forest?

"I suppose you never had school, did you, or anything with writing at all?

"We did some writing. Not much though. We didn't have time with all our chores and all. When we did have free time, we'd always head to the spot and talk.

The old man sighed. "A forest is an area where a bunch of trees grow. You lived in a forest, or woods, as they are sometimes called. Right now, the tower is in the plains. Plains are a place where almost no trees grow, but many tall grasses. There are also oceans, which are vast areas that are completely dominated by salty water."

"Well, then we lived in a forest. Trees were pretty much all we saw, besides some smaller grasses." Ryintha said.

"Would you all like to take some classes here? Magic is our specialty, but we've got some general classes about everything. Ayriena said something about sensing some elements on you while you were at the great tree. According to what she told us, I'll set you in certain classes for that type of element." He continued, "You'd all have to take a basic class to learn how to utilize your elemental bonds beforehand."

"I'd like that very much," Ryintha replied. "What about you guys?"

"Well, only if we can't find home." Said Karza.

"Yeah, if that's the case." Narste added.

"If we just took the general class for the elemental bonds or whatever, now, and then after that, go searching, wouldn't it be best? That way we could learn a bit of magic, and not have to worry about protecting ourselves with weapons the whole time?" It was clear to everyone that Kirthe was most enthusiastic about the whole class idea and everything.

Rvatial remained silent, still unsure whether to trust the older man. He had just offered to take them in without payment or anything, and there was seemingly no catch. If it really was true that he wanted no payment or anything, he must have a ton of money and resources, and be extremely generous.

"Well, if you've all made up your minds, then shall we all head to your rooms? I'll take care of your stuff. They're on the third floor, on the west, near all the other student's. I'll leave it to you to find it, since it shouldn't be that hard to find. Just three staircases down should leave you on the floor. Just make sure you're not caught on the fourth or third floors, during a bell, because all the classes are down there, and when they come out to go to their next, they'll see you, and be distracted."

"When we start a class?" Ryintha inquired.

"Tomorrow, I'll send Furai down and get you started. In fact, most of you will have her, since she does teach mostly the basic elemental classes. Also, you can train with your weapons down in the back training yards. There are some teachers for the combat skills, but we never have any set classes for them."

They all rose from their chairs, anxious to explore the tower.

"Oh, yes, and one more thing. Don't stay out of the tower after sunset, because you won't get back in until morning."

They all left the room, as he chuckled softly. They didn't expect for the bell to ring in just about as long as it would take them to get between the fourth and third floors. Well, if they were smart, they would stay on a stair flight, waiting it out.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Elemental Bonds

A few days later the five, dressed and ready to begin their new lessons about their elements. They had each been told what Ayriena had sensed about them, and each knew their elemental aura's had been. Narste was mostly fire, with some small amounts of gravity, air, and ice. Then, there was Karza, who had very little bond, but still a more than usual bond of fire and air, yet his twin, Kirthe, had a very excellent bond with every single different type, and excelled with fire, ice, thunder, and plants. The other two twins, both had a tremendous earth bond. The teachers would soon learn that Ryintha's bond could bring more through than two or three of the fairly proficient earth bonded sages, and healing heaped upon the normal earth bond. Rvatial had just as good of an earth bond as his twin, if not even better, and with some other lesser bonds better than most, yet he had extremely less of a healing bond.

Since each new student knew which type of element they knew the best, they were prepared, and already thinking of things that they'd be able to do once they had mastered the simple aspects of using the bond. Narste, never being one to expect too much, was thinking that he could light candles, while the others were all thinking about either creating caves, healing stab wounds, freezing a lake, or creating arrows out of fire.

It hadn't taken them long to get used to the daily bell that shook the tower ever hour, and they knew that they would need to come down outside, in the back training yards of the tower, where their simple attempts wouldn't make the tower collapse.

Back where they would be training wasn't unfamiliar to them, because they had taken the few days before they had to come to classes training with the weapons that they had somehow when they appeared in this world. Each of them had turned out to come to like their weapons and how easy they seemed to work for them. How they had known that they didn't like each other's weapons was when they had all thought about trying to be proficient in every type they had, and when they used another weapon, something always went wrong, or nearly so. A few times, there had been very close wounds, and sometimes they just wouldn't move right, or very sluggishly, like the air didn't want to let the sword move.

It wasn't long before they came over to the fields, where Furai stood waiting in her normal teaching outfit. The new students, in fact had all received uniforms the day before, which the now wore. The girls wore what Ayriena had been wearing when they found her. Kirthe and Ryintha wore soft green skirts that were past the knees, with soft leather boots, and loose darker green shirts, which were covered by cloaks that were a green between the skirt's and shirt's greens. Yet, the cloak also had soft embroidering of gold just about an inch before the end of the cloak. The other three that had come, also wore green, which was the initiate's colors, but they didn't know. Each of them also had a cloak that was similar to the girl's. The short sleeved shirts and pants were loose, which overall gave a more of a robe look, which they all thought looked ridiculous.

Furai began as soon as they had arrived. They all lined up, and she had them each tell her which element bond they had been told that they possessed. It didn't take long for her to separate them all into groups. She was going to teach them in what different types. She herself knew best fire and earth, which was actually good, although the other few types would be a bit harder. She had them all in their groups, Rvatial and Ryintha, and the others in another.

"The first thing you have to do when accessing the bond, is to realize that it's there. If you don't know where it is, and what it is, its just about useless. This will be the hardest thing at first. Building up the magical stamina will be the next thing, because once you get the basics of utilizing you bond element, it'll be easy to use it how you want, its just that you won't be able to do as much as you think." Said Furai to start off her lecture to both groups. "Each one of you will find the access to your bond at a different area, if I could say so. You'll just be able to feel where it is, once you locate it. Its almost impossible to relate in words. Each one of you, sit down on the grass. Its much easier when you're relaxed, and have time to probe. Begin at it, and you might want to think of different types of things that your element resides in. Earth is easy to think of and try to locate, while fire and ice are some of the hardest."

Furai finally gave them a break from her voice, and let them probe. It was another five minutes before she spoke again. "If anyone finds their bond, let me know. Most students can't find it for a few days when they start, but you can't be discouraged." Furai wasn't quite telling the truth though. She had never seen any of her beginners find their bonds for at least a week and a half from the time she went through this, and that was only for the easier bonds. Fire had taken her three weeks to find when she first tried. It hadn't been as easy as she had thought. "When you find your bond, it'll be hard to make really small things. Lighting a candle, for example, will be able the best you can do. At the beginning, it'll be easier if you had done it by hand, and without your bond…."

Kirthe was almost beginning to become frustrated. Her blue ball of electricity had been hanging in front of Furai since she told them which elements were harder to locate.

"Once you get the basics of a single element, the others will be much easier to find, and also, you'll be able to contact other's minds, that have the same element, and tell them things" Furai kept rambling.

Kirthe heard this, and since she knew Narste was also fire, and her fire element wasn't that too well hidden, she decided to put into practice what Furai was rambling about.

"Narste, its me, Kirthe. Have you found your bond yet?"

"Yeah, I've had it for a minute or two now. I can't seem to find anything to use it on. Fire is really hard to make in the air…"

"I've got a blue ball of lighting sitting in front of her face. Torch that!"

"Very well, let me find it."

Before Furai started up again on her little teaching rants, She suddenly noticed a flaming ball of lighting suspended in midair, right in front of her face. Noticing her startled look, Kirthe and Narste began to laugh. It faded and wavered, but barely held. Furai looked around the outside building for some other students that might be holding it in the air. Looking around and not finding any, she resorted to tracing magic. Her whole vision turned chrome, except for where magic was being used. To her great surprise, Blue gleamed around Kirthe, and Red around Narste, and where the floating lighting fire ball was, an almost purple color smudge resided within it.

"Stop that, you two!" yelled Furai, changing her sight back to normal. The magically created ball dispersed. "Must've found their bonds before this" Furai muttered. "When did you two find your bonds?" She half yelled at them.

"We found them just now…" They both replied happily.

"I don't think Karza's found his, but Rva and Ryintha both have. I asked them," added Kirthe, who was definitely the most magic oriented.

"Then I must speak with the Master sage about this. Also, Kirthe, how long were you two holding that thing?"

"I was holding my lighting ball since you were ranting about different elements being harder to find. Narste joined in a bit later, just before you noticed it."

"You know that you shouldn't be able to hold something near that long, especially on the first bond element channel. You're all dismissed. Don't do anything silly with your bond's strength yet. If you overchannel your current stamina, it will temporarily decrease for a few months. Most of us here found it out the hard way."


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Random acts of Hopelessness

The next few months passed quite quickly, without many interruptions in their daily schedules. Each one of them had places to go to every time the tower reverberated, except the morning sessions with Furai, who was their only teacher that they all had. AT other times during the day, some of them would go to rooms where they would learn a variety of things, usually with some other children that they never seemed to get to know very well, mostly because they would talk among themselves, but also because they thought they were weird. They all learned quickly, unlike many of the other students, who claimed that they didn't like the school. The group noticed that every one of the other students acted like they didn't want to be there, and doing something else. That was around the teachers at least. When the teacher had left the room, they seemed to quite enjoy themselves, and talk quietly to each other. After the first week they no longer paid much attention to many of the other students, except for the few that didn't seem to be in groups talking with each other all the time. When they noticed them in the hall, they would say hi. Most of them would not hear, but with one they noticed that he would always really quietly say hi back. Each one of them noticed him, but didn't say anything. He was about as old as them, with brown hair, brown eyes, and was fairly tall, with a slender build, or at least the girls noticed. Other than that they all just noticed he never said anything like the others did, about how the school was so bad. Catching his name was near impossible, and they didn't try, and for some reason didn't feel like approaching him to ask him.  
While each of them had noticed him the first weeks, they soon took less interest in students, and more in their bonds, and training with their weapons they had found stuck in their bags. They didn't practice with the ones that they had, but they borrowed ones that weren't so special. At first, they had wanted to practice with what they had, but the trainers and teachers had insisted that what they had were very special, and should not be used now, especially for practice. Practice each day occurred throughout, each one after another, with a separate teacher. Sometimes, they had others in their groups with them, but it was fairly rare. For some reason the teachers thought that they would do better with no competition. Each of them had some say in what their schedule was. Karza had more weapons training, since he didn't have such an excellent bond, and anyways, his two swords were extremely hard to learn to control and block with. On the other hand, Kirthe was almost the exact opposite. She had so many elemental bonds that were so strong, her whole schedule was composed of bond training classes, except for an hour of short sword training. Ryintha and Rvatial's schedules were much more alike, and they almost had gotten on class together, but at the last minute they had to change Ryintha's schedule. Ryintha was trained more with healing, while Rva was trained to use his earth bond to manipulate the ground, along with his bow and sword. Narste had a balance unlike all the rest. It rotated physical weapons training classes with fire bond classes, so by the end of the day when he had his general learning class, he was extremely tired. The time began to pass even faster, with each of them learning much about how things worked, and also their bonds began to strengthen more than a few of the teacher's. It was going to cause trouble for them, whether they knew it or not. Teachers do not appreciate being weaker.

It was a usual day to all of them. Nothing was stranger than normal, and it wouldn't be, at least until they had done something that wasn't tolerable, which was surprising, seeing how many things they did tolerate. They had all just gathered on the first floor cafeteria, where they had their morning rations of a simple porridge, and usually some fresh fruits. They all came around the same time, and invaded their usual table that they ate at. It had enough room to fit plenty of people, but since they were there, no one seemed to want to sit there, but occasionally a few sat at the end opposite from their side, but it was rare, and when it happened, no one spoke at all. This morning was rare in that respect. Ayriena and the shy boy that was always paying attention was with her. As they slowly ate the first parts of their meals, they began to wake up, and talk to each other a bit more. They started with what they had just learned the day before. Narste had just learned how to suspend a small fireball in the air for five minutes, and then fling it really quickly. Ryintha had just learned how to heal broken bones, while Kirthe was learning to create an extremely small ultima element attack. Rvatial could now make a pit almost instantly, or small rise in the ground. Karza wasn't near as bond oriented, so all he had really learned lately was to create a small elemental charge near his blades, so that if the creature was one that had a fire bond, he could coat his blades with a layer of ice mist, and effectively damage the creature. Other than that, they had been learning about basic numbers. They all found them to be a pain. Little markings on the paper never registered very well for them. They had a hard enough time with regular writing. Before long, they had run out of things to say, and were quietly eating again, before their porridge got very cold.  
It was ten minutes before they would leave for their group bond training with Furai, when Ayriena and Vaerli came over.  
"We're supposed to come with you guys when you go to Furai today." Ayriena told them, while messing with her cloak clasp. "That's alright, isn't it"  
"Yeah, I think its fine," said Narste, assuming they didn't have any objections. "Okay. It won't be long now." Ayriena continued to mess with her cloak clasp before she decided it wouldn't stop feeling weird unless it was left alone.  
They all just sat around at the table, and thought, partially waking up, and partially just thinking, right before the unwavering time bell went off. The minute or two quickly passed, and before they knew it, the rumbling was beginning. They all walked slowly out, Ayriena and Vaerli in their own little group, following behind to the left of them. Before long, they found themselves out before Furai, getting ready to start their typical lessons, although this time they would do some small bond channeling, and then they were to try something new. Each of them had performed a different type of warmup, depending on their elemental bonds. Narste was flinging around a small fireball, making it pop into little pieces, and then flinging around himself, almost in a firestorm-like fashion. Kirthe was creating a small earth roving element blast, while her brother was creating an airy ice blast. Rvatial made some small chunks of earth fly up, get cold, and blast apart. Ryintha, on the other hand, was mending some broken slivers of rock back onto the original boulder, where it sat near the edge of the walls surrounding the tower. Meanwhile, unbeknown to the rest of the group, Vaerli was making a flower straighten up, while also creating a ball of ice in midair, while making the inside water almost boiling. It was more than a simple warmup. On the other hand, Ayriena was bending the air around the ball of ice and boiling water, making it appear to not be there.  
"That's enough, everyone," called Furai, knowing that they were using up way more energy than they should have been, or at least just for a warmup. "Today we're going to test how strong your bonds are. Mostly, it'll be against us." She said, as she gestured toward Ayriena, Vaerli, and herself.  
"Okay, lets begin. Lets try Karza against Vaerli. Here's what you two will do." She lined each of them up ten or so feet apart from each other. "Now, when I throw this little piece of ice into the air, you two will each try to move it to your lefts. Try about half as hard as you can go, and don't make the ice chunk go too fast"  
"I'm ready," blurted out Karza, finally happy to have a challenge. On the other side, Vaerli stood silent, just ready for the test of bonds, and in a way, wills. He nodded.  
"Here we go then," Furai announced, as she lightly tossed the ice into the air. "Annddd, now"  
The test had begun. Each of them started to pull the chunk toward their lefts, straining the frozen water. It didn't take long before the ice chunk started to drift toward Vaerli's left.  
"Okay, that's good. Next"  
Ayriena stepped up to where Vaerli had been, and waited for Narste to get up to where Karza had been. "This time it'll be a fireball that I'll maintain up there. You two just have to try and move it." Furai blinked three times, just as a small fireball winked into existence between the two. "Go"  
The fireball took a minute to start moving, but before it did, it pulsed larger, and then sometimes almost went out. Slowly, it started picking up momentum, and before long, it was far enough away that Furai knew who had won. Narste beamed with triumph. He never thought he would be able to do anything like that, especially against someone much more experienced. It didn't take long for Rvatial and Ryintha to easily move the clods of dirt across the field, each against Ayriena and Vaerli.  
It came Kirthe's turn, and Furai stepped up across from her.  
"Okay, since Vaerli and Ayriena are much more tired, I'll take you on this one. They'll just hold the elemental mix in the air. Are you ready? Vaerli, you say when to start." Almost as soon as the elemental bond mix appeared in front of them, Vaerli gave the word. "Start," he whispered, just loud enough for them to hear. 


End file.
